With the rapid development of the Internet, computer users all over the world are becoming increasingly more exposed to writings that are penned in non-native languages. Many users are entirely unfamiliar with non-native languages. Even for a user who has some training in a non-native language, it is often difficult for that user to read and comprehend the non-native language. Consider the plight of a Chinese user who accesses web pages or other electronic documents written in English. The Chinese user may have had some formal training in English during school, but such training is often insufficient to enable them to fully read and comprehend certain words, phrases, or sentences written in English. The Chinese-English situation is used as but one example to illustrate the point. This problem persists across other language boundaries.
Accordingly, this invention arose out of concerns associated with providing machine-aided reading systems and methods that help computer users read and comprehend electronic writings that are presented in non-native languages.